The market for electronic devices containing integrated circuits continually demands increased performance at decreased costs. To satisfy these demands various production techniques are employed to produce integrated circuits.
Integrated circuits comprise a substrate over which other various layers are positioned to form the integrated circuit. Various substrate removal techniques can be utilized during processing. One production technique involves laser machining to selectively remove substrate material. Such laser machining can be useful in various production applications including forming slotted substrates configured for incorporation into various fluid-ejecting devices. Such fluid-ejecting devices can be adapted to various applications including print heads for ink jet print cartridges, as well as various other laboratory and medical applications.
Laser machining can also be useful in other production applications, such as dicing of wafers into individual substrates. While laser machining is a useful production technique, present laser machining techniques can cause incidental damage to component layers positioned on a substrate during laser processing. Thus a need exists for improved laser processing technologies.